'We know this is going on,' says president of Native Women's Association of Canada

Dawn Lavell Harvard, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, says a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women needs to validate stories of human trafficking on ships from Thunder Bay, Ont.
(CBC)

A national public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women must deal with the trafficking of indigenous women on ships from Thunder Bay, Ont., says the president of the Native Women's Association of Canada.

Dawn Lavell Harvard said she wasn't surprised when concerns about women disappearing on ships in Lake Superior arose at a pre-inquiry consultation meeting with federal ministers in Thunder Bay on Wednesday.

Lavell Harvard said for too many years reports of indigenous women being prostituted on ships have been dismissed by police as "urban myth" in Thunder Bay.

"So once it's acknowledged and recognized then we can begin to look at what we can do to stop this," she said.

"Obviously addressing this is going to require some international cross-border cooperation because girls are going back and forth — a convenient means of being able to escape detection when you're looking at trafficking," Lavell Harvard added.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said more than one family at the consultation meetings in Thunder Bay asked for assurances the inquiry would deal with cross-border issues because they've had a relative disappear on a ship.

Bennett said it's part of a quagmire of interjurisdictional issues that indigenous people face every day and that the inquiry will consider.